African American Archives

Jan. 6, 1874: Robert B. Elliott Spoke of Need for Civil Rights Act

Rep. Robert B. Elliott gave a speech to advocate for the Civil Rights Act, which passed a year later.

March 5, 1770: Crispus Attucks Killed

Crispus Attucks was the first person shot to death by the British during the Boston Massacre.

March 7, 1965: Bloody Sunday

To protest the police murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson and for voting rights, more than 600 people began a peaceful march from Selma to Montgomery.

April 17, 1863: Charlotte Brown Forced Off Streetcar

Charlotte Brown was forcibly removed from a horse-drawn streetcar in San Francisco.

March 22, 1968: March for Justice and Jobs

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Community on the Move for Equality called for a march in Memphis, Tennessee in solidarity with sanitation workers.

Stokely Carmichael talking with a local person about the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO) in 1966.

March 23, 1965: Selma to Montgomery March Continues

The Selma to Montgomery marchers traveled into Lowndes County, working with local leaders to organize residents into a new political organization: the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO).

March 25, 1931: Scottsboro Nine

Nine young African Americans were falsely charged with rape and collectively served more than 100 years in prison.

March 25, 1965: Last Selma March

The Selma marches were three protest marches about voting rights, held in 1965.

March 26, 1964: Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X

Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X met briefly by chance as they were waiting for a press conference.

March 27, 1867: Staged Ride-ins in South Carolina Streetcars

Staged ride-ins during Reconstruction in South Carolina were among the first (recorded) organized protests of segregation on a streetcar.

Thomas Mundy Peterson wearing the medallion he was awarded by the citizens of Perth Amboy.

March 30, 1870: Fifteenth Amendment

The 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution was formally adopted.

April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while in Memphis to support the striking sanitation workers.

April 24, 1867: Richmond Streetcar Protest

African Americans in Richmond, Virginia organized protests against segregated streetcars.

April 21, 1937: Congressman Ordered to Jim Crow Section of Train

Illinois congressman Arthur W. Mitchell was ordered to move to the Jim Crow car of the train once it entered Arkansas.

April 18, 1959: Students Petition and March for Integrated Schools

26,000 high school and college students came to Washington, D.C. to demand the end of segregated schools.

Book — Non-fiction. By Russell Duncan. 1986. 192 pages.
Freedom’s Shore tells the incredible story of Tunis Campbell, a Northern abolitionist minister who heads South after the Civil War to help freedpeople in Georgia.

Cause: Reconstruction America, 1863-1877

Book — Non-fiction. By Tonya Bolden. 2014. 138 pages.
One of the few non-fiction texts on Reconstruction aimed at young readers, Cause is a strong alternative to the textbook treatment of the era.

Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library

Picture book. By Carole Boston Weatherford and Eric Velasquez. 2017. 48 pages.
This picture book is a tribute to Arturo Schomburg, the Afro Puerto Rican historian collector and activist who chronicled the Black history of the Diaspora.

Dec. 11, 1917: Black Soldiers Executed for Houston Riot

“The primary cause of the Houston riot was the habitual brutality of the white police officers of Houston in their treatment of colored people.” —The Crisis magazine.

Crossing Ebenezer Creek

Book — Historical fiction. By Tonya Bolden. 2017. 240 pages.
A moving account of the Civil War massacre at Ebenezer Creek in Georgia.

Charles Sumner

Profile. Charles Sumner, Civil War and Reconstruction era politician in the United States.

Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery

Digital collection. This website publishes thousands of “Information Wanted” advertisements taken out by people freed from slavery who are searching for family members who had been sold apart.

The Fog Machine

Book — Fiction. By Susan Follett. 2014. 389 pages.
A young adult novel of historical fiction based on Freedom Summer.

Beaches, Blood, and Ballots: A Black Doctor’s Civil Rights Struggle

Book — Non-fiction. By Gilbert R. Mason. 2007. 227 pages.
Dr. Gilbert R. Mason’s eyewitness account of the fight for racial justice on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi during the civil rights movement.

We Shall Not Be Moved: The Jackson Woolworth Sit-In and the Movement It Inspired

Book — Non-fiction. By M.J. O'Brien. 2014. 340 pages.
An up-close study of the story behind the iconic photographs of the Jackson, Mississippi sit-ins.

Teaching Activity by M.J. O'Brien

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